STEROIDS, BASEBALL AND HUNGER ARTISTS. Congressional hearings are coming up on whether some baseball players used steroids or human growth hormone. I posted here on the elaborate measures that hunger artists took to demonstrate that they really were fasting. A baseball player in the steroid era needs to find a way to demonstrate that he has not used steroids. The agents for Roger Clemens have issued a statistical analysis arguing that his unusually high level of performance in the latter part of his career could be explained by ability rather than by use of steroids. But statistics are necessarily inconclusive. Testing for steroids helps players. Thus the drug testing would help most players, since most players did not use steroids. The union has harmed the majority of their players by fighting to prevent drug testing, not only because the players were faced with a choice between taking a dangerous drug or giving a competitor a major advantage, but also because they left every innocent player without a means to establish his innocence.
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Further, not advertising the functions of their hearings ignores the innocent. The infamous testimony before Congress with McGwire, Palmeiro, Sosa, etc. (Where Sosa comically pretended not to speak English), Frank Thomas and Curt Schilling also attended.
They attended, voluntarily, as representatives of players who had vocally opposed steroid use, and had wanted increased testing. However, ESPN and others simply had it presented as “FRANK THOMAS AND CURT SCHILLING WERE ALSO THERE!” as if they were suspected of use.
Roger Clemens’ is clearly a psycho. Between the bat shard at Piazza, and his attempts to fool McNamee with a concealed wire after his accusation, he has shown an insane temper.
If steroids really did lead to superior performance, then the agents were trying to protect those with the most to lose, the Super Stars. Of course, they would put their pet players under a protective net, rather than try to protect the game and its players as a whole. Just as, when you watch a basketball game in the NBA, the rookies get hammered and don’t get the calls. The All-Stars can do no wrong (well, almost). The presumption is that the American sports fan doesn’t care about the ethics; they want to see the flashiest and the “best.” Similarly, in Old Hollywood, during the studio system, the old stars got all kinds of legal protection from their studios, even for what we’d now consider major crimes–never mind the car accidents!
By the way, as a follow-up on this, Clemens got absolutely destroyed in his Congressional hearing today. The man is a delusional liar obsessed with his image, and as a result is going to probably be convicted of perjury. I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t make the Hall of Fame as a result of this.
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